SATURDAY marks the tenth anniversary of the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease which brought about the biggest social upheaval in Cumbria since the Second World War.

The disease devastated the farming and tourism industries as people were denied access to the Lake District.

The first case was detected in pigs taken for slaughter at Cheale Meats abbatoir in Little Warley, Essex, and within days it had spread north with Cumbria becoming the worst affected area of the country.

Reporters Daniel Orr and Rachel Ryan take a look back at how the crisis hit Cumbria.

EVERY farmer's worst night-mare came true in Cumbria within days of the first case of foot and mouth being found in Essex in February 2001.

By the start of March there were cases at Carlisle and Tirrill, near Penrith and soon Cumbria County Coun-cil had closed countryside footpaths.

Gordon Capstick, who was NFU county chairman at the time, told The Westmorland Gazette the crisis ‘could not have come at a worse time’, being in the midst of traditional lambing time.

On March 9 there were 19 confirmed cases in Cumbria and more than 100 in the UK, and days later the first South Lakeland case was detected at Dalton Old Hall Farm, Burton-in-Kendal, leading to the slaughter of 1,800 sheep and 200 cattle.

By March 23, 250 farms in the Kendal, Sedbergh and Windermere areas had been affected.

Prime Minister Tony Blair was moved to write to Gaz-ette readers stating he had put an extra £450 million into the livestock industry to help, and at the same time more than 10,000 animals were culled at Blenkett Farm, Allithwaite – the 737th confirmed outbreak in the country.

In mid-April Brigadier Alex Birtwistle, of Kirkby Lonsdale, stepped down after spending two months co-ordinating the cull, having been asked personally by Mr Blair to oversee the operation.

On May 11, access to countryside was improved with more than 200 footpaths re-opened in Cumbria.

By the end of June, West-morland County Show had joined the growing number of cancelled country events and in mid-July it was con-firmed that more than one million animals had been slaughtered on 3,000 Cumb-rian farms.

On August 3 the govern-ment imposed the “Penrith Spur” where 24-hour disinf-ectant stations were set up around the Shap, Penrith and Kirkby Stephen area. It was extended towards the end of September to include the Carnforth and Kirkby Lonsdale areas.

On September 30, Britain’s final case of foot-and-mouth was found at Little Asby, near Kirkby Stephen, and two months later the Penrith Spur was removed.

After almost a year of turmoil, the outbreak was declared as being over after 250,000 blood samples from Cumbrian livestock come back negative and the county passed the crucial 90-day period since the last case.

On January 1, 2002, the county was declared 'disease free'.